UMS-Wright's Emani Mhoon drives to the basket in a game against Fairhope last winter. Mhoon has helped the Bulldogs to a 9-1 start this season. (Michael Chang | al.com)

MOBILE, Alabama -- UMS-Wright girls basketball coach Terry Canova expected to have a good team this year, but the Bulldogs’ success early in the season has surprised even him a bit.

UMS, with a starting lineup that includes just one senior and four freshmen or sophomores, won its first nine games before losing to Class 5A No. 3 Faith Academy at home on Tuesday.

Still, Canova’s young team is 9-1 and ranked No. 2 in Class 4A behind only Oneonta.

“This summer and in the spring, we knew we had a very talented group,” Canova said. “I don’t know that the start is surprising as much as maybe we are a little ahead of schedule. The team we’ve seen on certain nights -- I didn’t know if we would see it this soon.

“I really believed we would see it in January and February, but maybe not this soon. We’ve kind of revved up the challenges to our team. As we get better, we are setting that bar higher.”

The Bulldogs have been led by the consistent play of senior Carrie Crook and the scoring of sophomore Emani Mhoon.

“Emani has been our leading scorer,” Canova said. “She’s a talented player. She’s got special, special skills. She has kind of been our go-to player if you had to point one out.”

However, Canova said the starting five has shown good balance all season.

Crook is right at double figures, McKenzie Courtney is the team’s biggest 3-point threat and freshman point guard Rekha Berry runs the team on the floor. Post player Ashley Scott is averaging 10 rebounds a game, but Canova said he must find ways to get her more touches on the offensive end of the floor.

“What we’re trying to accomplish at this point of the season – obviously you want to win – but we want to win the right way and play the right way,” he said. “One of the things we talk about is you are going to have great shooting nights and nights when you don’t shoot it as well.

“You can’t depend on those great shooting nights so you have to do the other things well. You have to make sure you challenge every shot someone else takes, you block out every time and you finish the simple possessions.”

Canova said young players have a tendency to focus only on wins and losses. He tries to harp each day on areas in which the team can improve.

The Bulldogs will try to rebound from their first loss of the year when they travel to Cottage Hill on Saturday. They’ve already beaten the Warriors once this season.

“It will be a good measuring stick to see what we took from this game (Faith),” Canova said. “Do we sulk up and take a step back or learn from our mistakes and take a step forward? Hopefully, we’ll move forward.”

Here are some other girls’ basketball highlights from the past week in Coastal Alabama: